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| Serena Williams |
I thought having watched Serena Williams completely dismantle Sara Errani in well under an hour on Thursday that Saturday's final may have been another quick one. Serena did come out on top over Maria Sharapova with a 6-4 6-4 victory in 1 hour and 46 minute, but this was a high quality and competitive affair. Sharapova did not hold back one bit, on her serve, her groundstrokes and emotion. In the first few games, Sharapova was celebrating every point she won, including Serena errors. Although I found the gamesmanship unsettling, it paved the way for a high intensity match with both players firing arrows from the get go. Despite Sharapova's attacking approach, she still came out second best to Williams, who put on another excellent serving display.
Serena will go into Wimbledon as the massive favourite, but I wonder if there will be a comedown of any sorts having got the one she wanted? Probably not because Serena is a machine and you just have to take your hat off to her for the way she has played since losing in the Doha final to Victoria Azarenka. Serena has gone on to win Miami, Charleston, Madrid, Rome and now Roland Garros. Sharapova's loss will see her fall to number three in the rankings and give Azarenka the lucrative prize of not having to face Serena at least till the final at Wimbledon.
I thought this was a good tournament for the women; the top three have really cemented themselves as head and shoulders above the rest and this is the first year where it has really translated to Roland Garros, where shocks have dominated the draw in the last three years. We didn't get so many this year, perhaps Li Na falling in round two to Bethanie Mattek-Sands was the biggest of the bunch, but it was a tough draw for Li. I enjoyed the resurgence of Jelena Jankovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova, who both gave their all in some entertaining and competitive quarter-finals. The women now head to Birmingham (grass) and Nurnberg (clay) and I will be following Birmingham for the week ahead so stay tuned for a preview on Sunday.
Interesting point Moo about how the top 3 seeds showed their superiority on the clay Grand Slam. Well I like upsets but too bad with the clay court finished it seems Sharapova's chances are slimmer on grass or is it? On paper it seems so but I see plenty of dynamism and lethal offensive potential vs Williams on grass as well. She's getting closer. I think there is a very thin volatile line that if crossed could severely undermine Serena's game. True Serena doesn't need her A+ game to win Gs's but if Sharapova can get rid of her Serena complex she'd have the edge in my opinion-ofcourse she'd have to get rid of her own demons first-too self-occupied during the match Sugarpova. Also it would be nice to see Mattek-Sands show more belief/confidence when playing the very top seeds-she can give them a good game-but the 'inferiority complex' is still there. Which suggests that winnig or not,she loses the match before it even starts...unfortunate-she can learn a thing or 2 from veterans like Jankovic/Kuznetsova?-arguably the only 2 players who don't suffer from 'I'm inferior to Serena and must play and serve like her to win' complex. They've tasted her 'blood' before after all. Well, maybe next clay court season Bethanie! Maybe not!
ReplyDeleteSugarpova's service game causes her a lot of undue stress-high risk-low first serve percentage-reminds me of Benoit Paire. She needs to get into the dirt with Serena-like Azarenka's approach. I think Sharapova has more tennis tools for the job than Azarenka-at least on grass(sticking to the topic). It would be lovely to see Kvitova beat Serena and everyone else in another Wimbledon. I'll keep on dreaming.
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